Review: The Kitchen’s summer menu

The Cookie is undoubtedly one of Leicester’s coolest venues. From their top comedy lineups (Jon Richardson, Joe Lycett and Seann Walsh all coming up this month) and great gig listings (did anyone catch the likes of Wheatus, Royal Blood and George Ezra?) to the birth of The Kitchen, which now offers a fantastic menu of daytime and early evening food options and The Attic with its quirky cocktail menu taking over the top floor, basically there’s always a reason to head to The Cookie.

The Kitchen launched in January 2016 and provides the perfect setting for daytime and early evening dining. The new menu came out just over a week ago and we obviously couldn’t wait to try it out.

Leading the way was the The Kitchen’s spin on a Salt Beef Hash. Something slightly different to the other brunch menu items across town, the slow cooked salt beef was tender and well seasoned, served in a mix of potatoes and beans and topped with a fried egg. Whilst the menu still offers the more expected brunch items (full english, sauteed mushrooms with poached eggs etc) it’s great to have the option of something slightly different and so well done (to perfection, not the beef).

Luckily we got to sample a few of the newbies from the menu including the sandwich selection. Not that I feel the term “sandwich” really does them justice. The stand out item from this section was undoubtedly the mushroom, spinach and goats cheese toastie, and that’s coming from a reviewer who isn’t a vegetarian. With the bread lightly toasted and the filling ample inside, the sandwich still managed to hold together well when eating. The goats cheese was the perfect addition to the mushrooms and spinach, but managed not to overpower the sandwich, which so often happens.

For the more adamant non vegetarians our pick would be the Chorizo Melt, which again came in lightly toasted bread and held inside slices of chorizo with roasted red and yellow peppers plus cheese. The flavour of the chorizo seeped through the rest of the filling making this a real highlight from the new menu.

The sandwich options also form part of The Kitchen’s Meal Deal in which you can get any of their sandwiches plus homemade crisps and a drink for just £5 to eat in or take away. It’s a bargain of super high quality, trust us on that one.

Sandwiches not floating your boat? There are a number of other main meal options too ranging from salads (avocado, pickled cucumber, cherry tomatoes, goats cheese, smoked salmon and salmon leaves, being one of our favourites) to a selection of burgers. We know, we know, burgers are everywhere at the moment, but that’s why The Kitchen are doing things a bit differently. For the vegetarian option we sampled the Roast Sweet Potato and Halloumi Burger, which is bound to be a highlight for anyone who likes halloumi because the cheese was by no means skimped on. The sweet potato burger substitute was quite dense and certainly made a change to often used falafel burgers, but the highlight of this one for us was the generous layer of halloumi placed on the top rather than being added into the sweet potato mix.

Not a sweet potato fan? Well then why not go for the Buffalo Burger, which sees the moist chicken covered in a spicy rub and grilled to form a really tasty burger, which comes topped with their house coleslaw. Flavoursome and filling, this stands apart from other chicken burgers which can so often be bland and underwhelming.

Aside from the food it’s important to remember that The Kitchen also shares its home in The Cookie with The Attic, which is fast becoming one of Leicester’s best cocktail bars. Obviously we couldn’t visit one without the other! Without doubt you can expect one of Leicester’s quirkiest cocktail menus when you visit The Attic. They’re probably the only place brave enough to put an Avocado Margarita on their menu for a start. Other stand out favourites include the Bloom Gin & Tonic, perfect to enjoy outside on their terrace for the summer, the drink comes with fresh strawberries from Leicester Market and also the Rhubarb Crumble cocktail, which was a perfect dessert substitute with its frothy egg white and crumble topping.

Enough of our raving, it’s time for you to try them out for yourselves. The Kitchen and The Attic are both based within The Cookie on High Street, Leicester. The Kitchen is open for food from Wednesday to Sunday midday to 7pm. Full information can be found at www.thecookieleicester.co.uk and you can follow them on the social media links below: